Mashimaro Alternative
by Himitsu Notebook
Summary: 5 years in the future, the girls have long parted ways. But how are things working out for them all? A twist of fate brings them all back together and the girls rekindle their friendship and help sort out each others messy lives. Please R
1. How it all worked out

_Mou gaman baka shiterannai yo  
Iitai koto wa iwanakucha  
Kaerimichi yuugure no basutei  
Ochikonda senaka ni bai bai bai_

"Oh, Its Mima Ichigo again…" Matsuri slid her fingers onto the volume switch. The library was dark and atmospheric, the only light being the one around the main desk where she sat with her friend, stamping the books that she hadn't been able to do during the day. She had been on a date. But it didn't work out so she came back to work. She'd had so much disappointment with all the guys she dated. They were all just users or creepy otaku's with glasses fetishes. Maybe she should just quit at love. She preferred being surrounded by books anyway. It was more her scene. The only sound in the dark empty library was the sound of Mima Ichigo humming quietly from the radio. Mima Ichigo was the biggest idol in Japan at the moment. These people usually had a couple of singles and then everyone forgot about them. Mima Ichigo probably wasn't anything special.

"Oh turn it off Mats, I can't stand her!"

"Huh? I thought you loved Mima Ichigo, Miru-san!" Matsuri turned to her co-worker.

"Yeah!" Miru chuffed. "For about a week I did!" Miru was Matsuri's polar opposite. She had long died red hair, wore florescent colours and went to bars on weekends to dance and down martini's. She was one of those funky crafty art college types, who you couldn't help but admire for her devotion to her work and love for her wacky personality. Matsuri couldn't be one of those types. Matsuri wore light fluffly colours like cream and pale pink. She stayed at home and read books on weekends and she was studying child psychology. She wasn't really the type to stand out from the crowd. Just the timid one with glasses who stood in the corner and made no attempt to socialise. You would think that she felt belittled by Miru's bright and bubbly personality but she didn't. She wasn't the type to compare herself to others.

"Seriously, Mima Ichigo was cute for about 5 seconds but now she is just irritating." said Miru shrugging. Matsuri didn't like anyone verbally bashing anyone. Even idols. They were people too! It seemed like people didn't realise that. Besides Matsuri quite liked Mima Ichigo…She didn't know why.

"Mima, five minutes!"

"Alright, alright yeesh!" Miu struggled with her hair, grooming and tugging it into tight bunches and wrapping them with pink polka dot ribbons. This idol business was stressful. These people didn't even know her real name yet they loved her all the same. It was stressful but she loved it. It was the life for her. Miu downed a can of Calpis and slammed it onto her dressing room table with a metallic clank. She looked at herself in the mirror, correcting her imperfections. Idols have to be perfect. She had to look fantastic for all the people expecting to see her and hear her. She couldn't get enough of their cheers. The crowd goes wild for Miu Matsuoka. All for Miu. Now who isn't cute enough, Nobue!

"Ahh…" she tested her voice. It was in good working condition. She took a deep breath and practised her pearl smile.

"Alright Mima! Your on!"

"Coming!" Miu straightened out her skirt, tossed her head back to remove all stray strands of hair and strode with confidence down the corridor. The stage hand passed her the mic. She waited with burning anticipation behind the red curtains.

"NOW! MIMA ICHIGO!" Miu took a deep breath and pushed back the fabric. The lights shone now. The crowd cheered. All for Miu. All for Miu.

Chika bobbed her head slowly, listening to the music thumping in her ears through her salmon pink coloured headphones. She'd had these since she was 12. She'd always loved music.

"Chika!" Chika could hear her roommate past the noise but pretended she couldn't.

"HEY CHIKA ITO!" Her roommate harshly jerked the headphones from Chika's head.

"What?" Chika swivelled around in her chair, popping a chocolate Pocky into her mouth. Her roommate Yuki, was the straight, serious and no-sense-of-humour type. She was the type who'd slap a guy for hitting on her. Chika had been that type once. Before she'd lost all faith in her ability. No point, why bother?

"Chika, will you get off your ass and actually do something!" Chika waved the Pocky around between her teeth, grinning.

"Oh why should I?" She plucked the headphone set from Yuki's hands and slid them round her neck.

"Chika! Ever since you got into college all you do it sit around, listening to music and stuffing your face. Then at weekends you go into the bar, get drunk, collapse on the doorstep and start all over again!" Yuki screeched, her hands on her hips. "You don't study! You've failed ever damn exam this year! Sort your life out!" She stressed the last 4 words loudly.

"Yeah I'll do it tomorrow…" Chika shrugged turning back to her manga book lying open on the desk. Yuki tutted and stomped of to bed.

Ana strutted down the pavements of Tokyo, her high heels clacking on the sidewalk as she went. Her long flowing blonde hair was tied in a tight ponytail, her tacky silver Prada bag filled with all her files, makeup and notes rested beneath her arm. Ana was coming home from another successful day at work. Every day was successful for her. She was the head of DoCoMo and she was raking the money in. She didn't like the area she had to walk through to reach her apartment. It was a shortcut but a dodgy one. Full of love hotels, strip clubs, kinky underwear shops and other places Ana wished would just be outlawed already. She hated being there. Those sleazy looking guys checking her out and inviting her in for a drink. She hated those types. She quickened her pace at the sound of a wolf whistle from the shadows.

"Hey baby! Why don't you come on in for a couple of drinks, y'know have some fun with us?"

"I'm busy!" Ana said sternly, refusing to look at the pack of guys advancing on her from behind. She just continued walking.

"C'mon, lets go karaoke." One of the men reached out and grabbed her wrist swinging her round, Ana attempted to wrench her arm away but they were surrounding her. She looked around in a panic.

"Leave me alone!" she screamed as they began to close it on her.

"Hey whadda you say we have some fun?" one of her attackers said, nudging the man next to him.

"Hell yeah!" Two of the men behind her grabbed Ana's arms to restrain her.

"Hey assholes, lay off!" Ana looked around to see who the voice belonged to. A dark figure placed a hand on the shoulder of the man standing in front of Ana and swung him around into her fist. He was sent crashing to the pavement. A tall and lanky figure clad in a tattered brown leather jacket leather jacket with sheep fur lining, his hair long just above shoulder length in a dark dirty brown. In his gloved hands was a long metal pipe with dried blood decorating the ends.

"Leave the girl alone." the figure said, brandishing the pipe menacingly. Ana noticed the voice was surprisingly feminine. Was her protector a woman?

"Woah Woah! Chill out, put the pipe down!" One of the men laughed nervously, as the other helped up their injured friend.

"I SAID LEAVE THE FUCKING GIRL ALONE!" Ana was sure she recognised that voice. With that the entire group took off in the other direction, stumbling in their haste. Ana bowed down politely in front of her protector.

"Thank you very much!" she said. As she brought herself up her eyes caught the face of the woman who saved her.

"Nobue?" Ana stood up straight, a hand raised to her open mouth in shock. Nobue raised her helmet slightly giving Ana a toothy grin.

"Always happy to help, sweetie." she said. Before Ana could say another word Nobue turned on her heels and swung her leg over her large motorbike parked on the pavement behind her. Ana remembered Nobue's strawberry coloured moped that she had had back when she was 16 and chuckled to herself at this large metallic intimidating Ducati which had taken its place. Nobue flashed a peace sign at Ana before zooming loudly off into the night.


	2. Memories of friendship

Chika lay with her hands clasped behind her head. Although she had seemed casual about it at the time Yuki's words had really sunk in. Ever since she was young Chika had always loved to cook. Matsuri, Ana and Miu, her first friends, would all come over and she'd bake them a large batch of cookies, strawberry cake and all the other confections they threw at her. She loved to cook so much Miu had once accused her of being fat because she used to eat all the leftovers. Even then she continued to cook. For dinner she'd always present Nobue with a large bowl of Sukiyaki and she always wolf it down and she'd never even say thanks. Chika never cooked anymore. She was more or less just living of the ready meals you bought in convenience stores and what Yuki cooked. Chika hadn't made cookies since she was 14. Nobue's words were engraved in her mind like stone.

_SHUT UP CHIKA, YOU DON'T OWN ME! OH AND BY THE WAY, YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD COOK? YOU THINK THIS HEATED BOWL OF SHIT SOUP STOCK AND UNDERCOOKED VEGETABLES IS FOOD? IT ISN'T FOOD ITS CRAP! NOTHING YOU DO IS RIGHT! YOU'LL NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING!_

Nobue was obviously right. Chika didn't amount to anything. She was just a lazy no-good college student without a penny or qualification to her name. She had no redeeming qualities and she was drinking herself to death. Well…Yuki was right with her harsh lecture. Chika wanted to make things right. She would try and cook again. She would study. She was sure she must of promised herself these things before but she had always procrastinated and crapped out halfway through. Well, now she was going to do something about it. Right now. No putting it off 'till tomorrow. She would start by studying. Chika slipped out of bed and tugged her pajama's from her legs pulling on a pair of khaki combats. She unbuttoned her top and pulled on a fitted black t-shirt. Chika scrawled a note to let Yuki know where she had gone and shrugged on her coat. She turned the handle and stepped into the open…

"Mima! Mima over here!"

"Mima! Great show!

"Hey will you sign my notebook?!" Miu stepped out into the crowd smiling with her 100% perfect pearl smile, hitching her diamond lilac feather boa up over her shoulders. She strutted through the crowd plucking objects from the hands of her fans, signing them and handing them pack. She made sure to pose with every step. The camera's were flashing all around and she had to look good. Miu knew at least one of them would sneak it's way into the newspaper at some point. Maybe not in recent news but one day. She turned around, tossing back her glistening auburn hair and gave the crowd one last smile before climbing into her limo and allowing the driver to carry her away from the fans. Away from Mima. She stopped being Mima Ichigo with that one last pose. Now she was just Miu Matsuoka. She made sure not to forget who she really was. And now she was Miu Matsuoka. That's all she wanted to be now.

"Hey Mats could you finish off here?" Miru stood up from her seat, swinging her tote bag over her shoulder. Matsuri paused for a second.

"Oh…Sure. Do you have plans?"

"Yeah." Miru grinned. "Hot date." Matsuri smiled weekly back at her.

"I hope it all goes well…" she said in her normal meek tone. Miru raised a hand in a wave goodbye and walked swiftly through the aisles. She paused by the door.

"Lock up when you're done Mats!"

"Okay!" Matsuri called back. The door slammed. Matsuri sat there staring at the pile that Miru had dumped on her. She sighed. It was going to be a long night. Open the books, Stamp, Open the books, Stamp…Repetitively. Matsuri felt her eyelids growing heaving. The last thing she saw was the blurred words on the page in front of her gliding towards her as she came to rest on the paper.

"Hey Nobue."

"S'my name…" Nobue bit down on the end of a cigarette before flicked her lighter on and holding it to the end to ignite.

"Still goin' through with the wrecking thing?" Nobue snapped her lighters lid shut.

"Hell yeah, bring it on bee-yatch!" Nobue had always been fairly well behaved around her teenage years but as she got older she started to rebel. She fell in with the wrong crowd. She got into full-scale gang warfare on motorbikes, she took drugs occasionally, she smoked, she trashed things when she felt angry. She'd verbally and physically abused her younger sister before storming out the door. She hadn't seen Chika since she was 14. Chika was about 17 by now Nobue guessed. She regretted doing what she did but there was no way Chika would hear her out now. She didn't even know where Chika was, if she was doing well in school. Anyway, Nobue and her gang were planning to trash the Ikezawa public library. Why? Just cause they felt like it. Nobue was a member of the all-girls motorbike gang "The Cats". They drove around threatening pedestrians, engaging in war with other gangs on the motorways and doing other shady deals. Nobue looked back and wondered how the hell her life had gone so wrong. Whatever, she was still going through with library trashing plan.

Ana was looking forward to getting back to her warm and spacious home. There was just one thing she needed to do. She had to pick up some certain files from the library. Ana pushed open the door and stepped into the faintly illuminated hall. She had never really cared for books herself. The sight of all these bound lumps of paper just sitting and gathering dust made her a little tired. Ana made her way to the front desk. The librarian was fast asleep over a book. How cute in a dorky sort of way. Ana was surprised that this girl was even here. As she approached closer she noticed the librarians strangely coloured hair. Starlight white with deep brown ends. It was straight and smooth and unique. Ana had only seen hair like it once before. In her childhood. She examined the girls face. It was small round cute and donned a pair of glasses. Ana let out a gasp.

"Matsuri?" This was strange. Two old acquaintances in one night…No it couldn't be. Surely other people died their hair this way! But there was no harm in waking the girl to find out. Matsuri was her best friend all through elementary and high school. Her only friend and the only one who knew she couldn't speak English. No problem with that anymore, Ana was fluent in English and more. Ana was still actually only a high school student herself but she dropped out early and into the world of business. Ana's mature figure and intelligence easily passed her off as much older than she was. She looked enough like an office lady.

"Excuse me miss?" Ana shook Matsuri's shoulder gently. Matsuri yawned slowly opening her eyes. Abruptly she shoot up from the desk with a gasp.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry! Don't fire me! I was just tired!" Matsuri stammered straightening her glasses in a frenzy. She looked up.

"Can I help you miss?"

"Matsuri!" Ana cried out, her face lighting up like a Christmas tree. Matsuri looked at her in shock.

"How do you know my name?" she said in wide-eyed astonishment.

"Matsuri it's me! Ana! Ana Copolla! Remember?" Matsuri's astonishment twisted into an amazed smile.

"A-Ana?" Matsuri stood up and gave Ana a warm hug. "Omigod Ana! Its been ages." Ana was a little hesitant to reciprocate but she did all the same.

"Wow, the years have been good to you!" Matsuri said cheerily looking Ana up and down. "Are we really the same age?" Ana giggled.

"Mentally. Physically I've surpassed you in every way!" Ana gave Matsuri a light playful poke in the forehead with her crimson polished nails. Both of them laughed together. At that moment their laughter was shattered by the door squeaking open.

"Hello?" came a girls voice. "Is anybody here."

"Yes!" Ana called. A girl stumbled towards them, a tote bag under her arm.

"Oh, hello." the girl laughed as if she was out of breath. "Am I to late to check something out?"

"No not at all." Matsuri said politely. The girl nodded and breathily laughed something indistinguishably before jogging off down the aisles. The girl was a college student by the looks of it. A thick parka topping a black t-shirt and khaki pants. She seemed tired and slightly frazzled. Ana couldn't help but wonder why she was in here so late.

"So!" Matsuri said, cheerily clapping her hands together. "I'll get you some coffee and we could catch up!" Ana was in a rush to get the files she came to claim home but she couldn't resist Matsuri's innocent and hopeful offer.

"Why not?" Ana said, in a sort of oh-go-on fashion. "I take it black."

"Okay!" Matsuri bowed formally and scurried off to the back room to make the drinks. Ana strolled behind the desk and took Matsuri's seat, swivelling around a few times. The college student hurried back to the desk three books in hand. Two on advanced confectionary and one manga. She dumped them in front of Ana.

"I'd like these two please." she said.

"Okay, but the librarian is making coffee at the moment. Just wait a sec hon." Ana said, smiling in a sort of motherly way at the poor befuddled girl.

Chika didn't really want to go back to her apartment and face Yuki's accusations. This library was warm, the two girls here seemed nice. Maybe she could just sit in with them and read quietly while they talked over coffee. Somehow she felt like she knew the blonde bombshell sat behind the desk. For the 3rd time this evening the door swung open. A very glamorous girl strode in, clearly rather high on her own importance. She was clad in a strappy strawberry coloured top with the word "delicious" printed across it in glitter, neon pink high heels adorned with small bows and a denim miniskirt which Ana personally found way to revealing. The heavily made up girl stared around the store without a word.

"Quiet in here." she remarked almost snobbily.

"Yeah…" Chika said, stood there awkwardly twiddling her thumbs. She looked up from her feet at the girl who had just entered. Her eyes widened.

"Oh my god! Mima Ichigo?" The girl let out an irritated sigh as if she'd been expecting it. "Wow!" Chika gasped. "It's…just wow!" She was struggling for the right words. Chika was a huge fan of Mima Ichigo. She had bought every one of her albums from the minute she became big. "It's an honour to meet you Miss. Ichigo…" Chika stammered. "I'm a huge fan." Mima didn't react much. She just smiled patronizingly at Chika.

"Its Matsuoka. Miu Matsuoka. I'm not "Mima Ichigo". I just came in here for some peace and quiet. I'm being tailed by the bloody paparazzi…"

"Oh…my…god…" Ana and Chika said in exact unison.

"MIU MATSUOKA?" Ana cried raising from her seat immediately.

"Problem?" Miu scoffed sarcastically.

"Miu Matsuoka, you douche bag…Who knew that YOU of all people were Mima Ichigo…" Ana said grinning at her.

"How dare y--Wait, Ana?!" Miu cried. "Oh my god, Chika!" Miu looked backwards and forwards between to two, mouth wide open.

"Chika?" Ana looked at Chika, jaw trailing along the ground.

"Ana?" All three of them looked back from one another in complete shock. Chika let out a laugh.

"Wow! This is so…weird!" she giggled. "Miu Matsuoka is Mima Ichigo? I'll never buy one of your records again!"

"Chika! How are things working out for you. Me? They're going great!" Miu gushed, not letting Chika answer.

"Not so good actually…" Chika sighed. "I'm in a bit of a rut…"

"You still cooking, Chi-chan?" Chika stomach lurched, Nobue's temporarily forgotten words rushing back to her in an instant.

"No…" Chika shook her head, her voice quivering. "No, No I'm not."

"Aaaw, but Chika your cookies were fantastic!" Ana said sympathetically.

"I used to think so too…" Chika sobbed. Before she could comprehend Miu was next to her with her arms comfortingly around her. Chika couldn't help but cry even more. Her best friend who always teased her, bugged her and was always generally annoying was now giving her a hug. It felt strange but right.

Ana smiled warmly.

"Matsuri is making drinks. What will you two have."

"Lemon tea." Miu said, slowly breaking away from a tearful Chika.

"Hot…C-Chocolate." Chika sniffed. She hadn't had a hot chocolate since she was 12. But now she was back with her friends she was beginning to become increasingly nostalgic. Ana poked her head into the back room where Matsuri was working away.

"Mats, could we have a lemon tea and a hot chocolate out here to?"

Matsuri looked back at her, slightly confused, but nodded and proceeded to do so anyway. The girls had a lot of catching up to do.


End file.
